The establishment of formal teacher training began in 1847 with the opening of Upper Canada's first Normal School in Toronto. Normal schools (the word "normal" refers to "according to rule") provided academic, professional and practical training to students; teaching them educational history and philosophy, teaching methods and classroom organization and management.

Men and women were admitted to normal school upon completion of an application package which required a letter of recommendation from a member of the clergy or a school inspector. These letters were called certificates of moral character and were written to vouch for the student’s good character, religious affiliation and previous teaching experience, if any.

The certificate of moral character shown here would have been sent directly to Egerton Ryerson in his role as Chief Superintendent and Principal of the Toronto Normal School. The text of the letter appears below.

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Certificate of moral character for
J. H. Byam, May 12, 1848
Toronto Normal School Certificates of Moral Character
Reference Code: RG 2-140, box 1
Archives of Ontario

To obtain a teaching certificate the student teacher would be required to conduct classes at a model school. Model schools were "practical schools" established in public schools partnered with the normal school. Teachers graduating from normal school courses would be issued a First or Second Class Certificate qualifying them to teach elementary or high school for higher wages and eventually become school principals or school inspectors.

The poem to the left below recalls one student's experience practice teaching in front of his peers. Training registers, such as the one to the right below, document praise and criticism, teaching suggestions, and grading of the practice teaching assignments.

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"Experience of a Normal School Student"
published in the Ottawa Normal School
newspaper, Rhapsodist, 1895 (p. 11)
Correspondence of the Principal of
Ottawa Normal School
Reference Code: RG 2-253, box 2114, file 58
Archives of Ontario

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Practice teaching evaluations for Mr. Joseph Sherman from a Provincial Model Schools Training Register, 1885
Toronto Normal School student records.
Reference Code: RG 2-128-5-6
Archives of Ontario

The Archives of Ontario holds training registers for both the Toronto and Ottawa Provincial Model Schools, as well as student records for the Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, North Bay, Lakeshore and Stratford Normal Schools.

Increasing demand for spaces in normal school courses led to the opening of a second normal school in Ottawa in 1875, and five more in subsequent years.

In 1953 all normal schools were renamed teachers' colleges. In 1974, the Toronto Teachers' College was reorganized as the Toronto campus of the newly created Ontario Teacher Education College; there was also a Hamilton campus. And, for the first time, they granted degrees. In 1979, these colleges were absorbed by faculties of education in various universities. For more descriptive histories of these schools, please see the administrative histories found in the Archives of Ontario's record creators database.

Ottawa Normal School students
reading Our Canada in the library, 1950
Ministry of Education
Black and white print
Reference Code: RG 2-251
Archives of Ontario, I0021762

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Ottawa Normal School class photograph, [ca. 1925]
Ministry of Education
Black and white print
Reference Code: RG 2-251
Archives of Ontario, I0021761

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Ottawa Normal School hockey team, [ca. 1920]
Ministry of Education
Black and white print
Reference Code: RG 2-251
Archives of Ontario, I0021763

Model schools were different than normal schools in that they focused on basic practical training and were a less expensive and more accessible method of gaining teacher certification. Students graduating from model schools, without also having normal school training, would be issued temporary Third Class Certificates. This class of certification would permit graduates to teach primarily elementary classes, but would require them to renew their teaching certificate every three years. The photograph below, taken in 1905, is believed to be of a class of student teachers in a county model school in Gananoque, Ontario.

Classroom in small school [Ganaoque?], November 23, 1905
Marsden Kemp fonds
Black and white print
Reference Code: C 130-1-0-9-25
Archives of Ontario, I0012913

It was intended that model school students would eventually upgrade their certificates by attending normal school, though few actually did.

By 1877, a system of county model schools was established (some in partnership with the normal schools) and by 1880 there were 47 model schools across the province. The county model school system was later replaced with a provincial model school system, but this too was abolished by 1924. The Toronto Model School, the last model school in the province, closed in 1941.

Miss Ella Miller, a school teacher in Longlac, in her classroom, 1925
Alexander Isbester family fonds
Black and white negative
Reference Code: C 267-3-2-2-38
Archives of Ontario, I0011867

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Second Class Teacher's Certificate for Abner Gilcox, awarded by the Department of Public Instruction (signed by Egerton Ryerson), 1869.
Sample Teachers' and Inspectors' Certificates
Reference Code: RG 2-336
Archives of Ontario